Wideband 4-Way Combined Power Amplifier in BiCMOS Technology for D-Band Applications

A wideband 4-way combined power amplifier (PA) in a 0.13−μm BiCMOS process is presented. The overall PA is based on four unit cells of 3-stage cascode PA, which is adopted for larger output power and higher gain. Load pull simulations are done to optimize the unit cells together with the 4-way combiner for wideband characteristics. With the assistance of hicum and vbic models, the overall PA shows a peak gain of 30dB at 126GHz with the 3-dB bandwidth higher than 80GHz. Under large-signal excitation, the PA delivers a maximum output power greater than 17.5dBm at 120-180 GHz with peak PAE higher than 5%. The PA can be used for various future D-band applications. Measurements are on the way and will be presented into the final contribution.